Last weekend, I suckered H and a friend of mine into running the Rocky Raccoon 25K Trail Race at Huntsville State Park. The 15 mile run fit perfectly into our marathon training schedule, plus I wanted to run somewhere different for a change of pace & do an extra little training challenge.
The park is less than an hour north of Houston, and luckily the race didn't start until 8AM. There were some nutty people there doing a 50K (30 miles) who started at 7AM. 
It started out pretty darn cool that morning- but it made for beautiful steam rising off the lake.
Trail running is a lot more work than just pounding the pavement. There were lots of small hills, but the real killer was dodging all the rocks and tree roots. I stubbed my toes a few times & had some pretty spectacular trips, but luckily no falls!
It was a really nice change of pace, but I think my friend & H were about to kill me for talking them into it. The weather was perfect, runners were friendly, good aid stations, but sadly, no raccoons in sight.
I finished just over 3 hours, which was totally fine by me. I felt great, but ended up walking up most of the hills near the end because I lacked the energy to skillfully dodge the roots without tripping. H did great for the first 12 miles, but his knees really started bothering him. We'll have to get him toughened up before January.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: After the Houston Marathon in January, I just signed up to run the first ever Disney Princess Half Marathon in March!
3 comments:
I am so jealous that you have that warm of weather. What a gorgeous place to run!
princess half marathon sounds exciting :)
Way to go! I can't believe H is going to do this with you!
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